This is the link to that picture I was working on. Last week there was this voting for the mascot of Alex’s school. The vote ended up Rodents of unusual size. I voleteered to draw the logo.
The colors didn’t turn out quite as pure due to the scanner. The school colors are technically orange and brown, but they can be changed to any color desired easily with photoshop. Also, it may be a little too wordy, I’m not sure. Hope you guys like it. 🙂

The words sound correct together *and* destroy any possible ‘rock people are all idiots’ sterotype!
I doubt people *wouldn’t* like your paintings, but mixing it up every so often wouldn’t hurt. Paintings one month/few weeks, pin ups the next whathaveyou.

Aww, Paddington wants a mud bath.^^
Great painting!!! It rocks!!!!
And being put in a drawing in order to get the original?!?!?! OMGOSH! This is the only time I’ve ever wanted my own bank/credit card. *pout* And I don’t think Dad will let me borrow his.

Oh I think that “Quite resilient” is perfect. I delves deep into the character, hinting that this particular rock giant was well raised and very educated.
…Unless of course that wasn’t what you were going for. But I like it!

The picture is amazing. I think a donation based lottery sounds great.
You said it was 5×9.5″ Bristol board, but what kind of colors? are those color pencils? paints? It looks fantastic, in any case.
Keep up the amazing work.
Loving the comic, and the art work.

A question about the donation. Will you be part of the lottery if you donate 5 dollars, or does it have to be more than 5 dollars? Sorry if the question is a bit weird, but since I did wonder, I was thinking I’m probably not the only one wondering =)

I’d love to be part of the lottery! This was a really a good way to do it. By the way is this for April? Shouldn’t you include May as well? I mean it’s nearly 10 days left of April, and that painting is worth at least 40 don’t you think?

I think you should do what ever you feel you have time for. This allows for if Donna gets sick, you get sick, or your boys get sick, as well as other assorted problems that may arise. Hopefully those problems and more do not arise too often. We all agree that a happy and productive author is better than an unhappy productive author, I think. If any one does not, feel free to hate on me as much as you want. If you agree, then great minds think alike. Now on to my little art critique.

I LOVE THE WAY NASTAJIA LOOKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
*insert cough here* That is all.

Resilient doesn’t seem to expect a further adjective, whereas a word like “resistant” does. Resilient can be used where words like “elastic” and “springy” would also fit.

I’m guessing that the concept here is a specific resistance (to fire), rather than an overall resistance to damage (where “Rock is quite resilient.” would work). I’d consider the aforementioned “resistant” as an in place replacement, or a sentence like “Rock is nearly impervious to fire,” where you could also use “impenetrable”. Note that you’d not want to be careful with anything harder or softer than “nearly” – “very impenetrable” won’t work, and neither will “somewhat impervious”.

Another argument for the current text: it’s not quite correct, but then the rock giants may have learned English as a Second Language, and such errors are not uncommon. Especially as most of their English teachers would be children, who are not always correct either”
“Behave!”
“I’m being as have as I can!”

Different concepts being expressed.
“reliant against fire” means that rock giants heal quickly from fire damage
“resistant to fire” means that rock giants are not easily damaged by fire.
With reference to the mud bath healing Paddington, the first is more appropriate.

Scott, I think there is a mistake in the “Dreamland News” classification at the bottom of each page. Instead of just having the current page description followed by news articles (hockey day, etc.), now there is a list of every page description, starting with 2 copies of page 1072!
The easiest explanation is that all page descriptions are now listed as being part of the “Dreamland News” category.
Also, I didn’t see when the drawing/lottery will take place, to be followed by another drawing/lottery. I think the color sketch is a great incentive to donate, BTW.

Me thinks the author doth protest too much. ;P It sounds weird, but… thank you for letting us help you!! This is my take on donating. I have a great deal of respect for anyone who has the courage to try to make a living doing what they love, and if I can help whether it’s purchasing merchandise or donating then it’s my honor to do so. So there!

I second the earlier comments about the preposition – it should be “to” rather than “against.”

If you do change that, though, “resistant to fire” is better than “resilient to fire.” Either rock is resilient in general, regardless of what it is up against, or it is resistant to fire, which is why it is applicable in this case. As has been said, resilient implies that he springs back quickly, even if the damage was severe (which it does not appear to be – “like a sunburn”). Resistant implies that the damage was not severe, since he is toughened against certain things – namely fire, in this case.

I’m glad you put up a donation button and the painting is GORGEOUS! That is more than enough of a reason for anyone to donate. I like the dialogue in the third panel, it works for me. Paddington is really cute in the last panel :). I also wonder if Rock Giants can get sunburns? Or maybe he’s just relating to what he knows Alex can understand.

That is a look i get from my smug kitty cat all the time, ‘specially when hes a happy kitty, or drunk lol Love it. Ill be able to donate sometime after june, right now all my moneys are going towards dr visits and blood work (yick) for my surgury in 2 weeks.

When will the drawing/lottery will take place? Presumabley a different drawing/lottery follow? I think the color sketch is a great incentive to donate, BTW.

I suppose you could go one of two ways here. Frequent (weekly) lotteries that people will pick and choose which ones they want to enter for, or less frequent (monthly) lotteries that a few fans will enter almost every time.

One per week? On top of 5 comics a week, and occasional vote incentives, and working on a movie deal, and getting the store back up, and probably fighting with someone about royalties soon, plus allowing time to spend with your wonderful wife and terrific twin boys!? You’re a machine …
😉

But seriously, don’t overextend yourself; one per week is great, but one every two weeks would be fine too. I’m sure the readers that can participate will participate either way.

I think once a week would be to often for a donation wall paper but probably not for an art raffle.

Maybe if you did a weekly raffle you could redirect from PayPal to a page that will eventually hold all of the wallpapers for that month. Although you would have to present the page in a way that those that donate early could get back later without granting access to everyone. Also, I’m not sure what kind of response you got but weekly raffles would likely result in people waiting and donating for the “best” so some weeks could have few donations.

Count my vote in the column to leave the “resilient” sentence exactly as it is. 😉

Also, if you’re interested in suggestions for new vote incentives, that last panel would blow up nicely into a really cool wallpaper …

And to everyone: amidst all the talk about the new Donations link, don’t forget that there’s a VOTING LINK up there too …

I’m having an honesty attack, Scott: I was forced today to decide between using your donate button and putting gas in my truck. I’m afraid the truck won out, because I have to be able to drive to work once in a while. (There’s still a good chance that I can clear enough room on the Visa to buy a couple of Dreamland books for the nieces & nephews once you get the store up, though.)

I think you used the correct phrasing with the word “resilient”. If he was “resistant” to fire then he really should have taken no damage at all.

I also agree with Tekserver that I would hate to see you overextend yourself, i think every 2 weeks would be fine. You should know that if you did suffer burnout and stop this magic you’ve created, I would then have to hunt you down and say “Hello. My name is Werepixi. You killed my Dreamlands. Prepare to die.”

That painting of Nastajia is amazing and I think using your artwork a great idea for generating donations.

I love Paddington’s expression in the last panel. It reminds me of myself when someone offers me a slice of “Death by Chocolate” torte, or some equally decadent dessert!

Scott, I’m really glad you decided to put up the donation button. There are people all over this world sticking their hand out for free money, and offering nothing in return. You have been doing exactly the opposite. You’ve been offering this wonderful story for free and asking nothing in return. Life has its ups and downs, and we all could use a little help for time to time. I’m glad that we now have a way to help you in return. I hope your financial crisis is short, but leave the button up regardless. I love getting new wallpapers, and you will be able to save up for the next financial crisis. 😉

To be resilient means to be able to spring back to an original shape after being compressed or distorted. Jello is resilient. Rocks, as a rule are brittle, thus not resilient.

However, when speaking of a person (for which Paddington obviously qualifies), resiliency is the ability to withstand or recover quickly from difficult conditions (which Dragon-fire easily qualifies).

So, if the speaker is NOT speaking of inert mineral material (which Paddington is not), but of the living substance from which Rock Giants are made (which Paddington is), then I would think it is entirely appropriate.

Scott- something else to consider I just thought about from watching the new iPhone OS 4.0 update video off of Apple’s website the other day. With iPhone OS 4.0 coming out this summer (for 3GS), could you or your team make an iPhone app that would allow us to directly purchase stuff from you guys (while using the new iAd to advertise either other authors you endorse or your own products)? I figure this way you don’t have to use IDW to try and get the profits. People can just purchase stuff straight from the Blue Dreams Studios app’s ads, and with a touch- if they decide they don’t want to view the advertisement anymore- can go right back to their app, since the new OS adds multi-tasking capabilities not currently present on the iPhone (this new feature will encourage users to actually click on ads since their apps won’t stop running).

If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, go to http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/1004fk8d5gt/event/ , view it in whatever resolution you want, and then skip to 44 minutes or so, and watch the video from there. Steve Jobs demos some of the new features that iPhone OS 4.0 is bringing to the table for app developers.

Catxching up from a long time having lost this comic. Good to be back! the plot is beautiful, and Nicodemus is a great villain.(Have you read The Dresden Files? they’re really good.)
Anyways, that painting looks better than ElfQuest. I just wanted to say.

This could inspire an interesting vote incentive page; all the characters together in a mudbath. Paddington in the middle, looking content, Alex throwing a mudball at Nastajia, and Felicity hesitant to get in. And I don’t mean this to be in any way dirty. Except for the mud.